August 2017

In our culture, “What are you worth?” is a question about your finances and utility, not your character. To be a “suc­cess” means you have more at the end than you did at the start. We say “you can’t take it with you” but we be­have and judge as though you can.

Every leader knows that they shouldn’t micromanage — even if some of us still do. But while we understand the downsides of micromanaging and taken action to avoid it, we still haven’t sufficiently embraced the upsides of not micromanaging.The main upside is that leaders have more time to spend on what we call macromanagement.

The United States has thousands of workforce development and training programs, run by the public, social, and private sectors. Some are excellent; others, not so much. The problem is that we don’t know which are which.

The erroneous notion of “good perfectionism” is so widespread that many people struggle to distinguish toxic perfectionism from positive characteristics such as desiring achievement, striving for excellence, and setting high personal performance standards. Research by psychologist Thomas Greenspon indicates that it is a mistake to conflate perfection with a striving for excellence.

What motivates people to change the way they work? When organizations introduce new processes or systems, or when they want to stimulate performance for certain business practices, they often assemble dedicated task forces, assign them specific goals, and identify deadlines and financial rewards.

The idea of incentivizing CEOs and senior executives seems reasonable to most people. Yet the large executive bonus is a relatively recent phenomenon. Executive pay grew more slowly than the average worker’s income during the 50s, 60s and part of the 70s. It was in the 1980s that the ratio of CEO to average-worker pay grew dramatically.

When you can care personally at the same time that you challenge directly, you’re on the way to successful leadership. The term I use to describe a good manager–direct report relationship, and this ability to care and challenge simultaneously, is radical candor. So what can you do to build radically candid relationships with each of your direct reports? And what are the pitfalls to avoid?